A collective perception model for neighbor selection in groups based on visual attention mechanisms

How each individual selects others within a group to interact with based on visual perception is a fundamental process underlying various collective motion behaviors. This process, however, remains poorly understood theoretically so far, partially due to the challenges of modeling neurological perception systems. Here, the classic zoom-lens visual attention model is introduced into collective perception, leading to a simple attention-based model that merely has a single parameter. Numerical experiments reveal that the proposed model offers a unified mechanism for collective perception, as reflected in three aspects. First, this model describes both conspecific (e.g., flocking) and heterospecific (e.g., predator-prey) collective behaviors. Second, this model unifies the well-known topological and visibility models in the context of neighbor selection in conspecific groups. Third, in the context of prey selection in heterospecific groups, the model can simultaneously replicate the well-known confusion and oddity effects. All these suggest the fundamental roles of visual attention underlying a diverse array of collective motion behaviors.